Hazardous Emergencies

Hazardous materials are shipped on the country's highway system every day and on a moments notice, an accident could occur.

The Muskingum County Emergency Management Agency in conjunction with the Ohio Homeland Security Region 8 Hazmat will hold a multi-county table top exercise on Saturday to plant in the event of a disaster. Muskingum, Noble, Belmont, and Jefferson Counties will be participating.

"It's all behind the scenes but it is an excellent training for everyone and I guess the big thing here again is if we do have an incident we want to be prepared," said Muskingum County EMA Director Bo Keck.

Keck said they will respond to a hypothetical accident in Caldwell involving three tankers at a truck stop near the interstate. Three main objectives will be covered: initial notification, resource management, and communication.

"Those are the ones that we have to complete for our four year cycle which works out good for this drill because those are the most important things that we're going to be doing with this drill," said Keck.

Evaluators will be provided with exercise evaluation guidelines for each of the assigned objectives. The drill will take place from 9 a.m. until 12 p.m.